RR: Valley Forge / Red Box Fire Road (kind of!)

[kanga]

I say kind of, because I never got to see the valley forge under the snow... and the red box fire road was buried as well.

Corba had planned another trailwork day on the Valley Forge Trail for tomorrow, FebRR: Valley Forge / Red Box Fire Road (kind of!) - SoCalTrailRiders 2nd. We were up there a few weeks ago and had a great time, but there was still a little left to do at the bottom. We'd been in contact with the rangers up there and they said the Mt. Wilson road may or may not be open. I volunteer to go for a ride this morning and check it out, so we wouldn't be driving up for nothing tomorrow.

First off, the parking lot at Red Box is under snow and there's only a few spaces:






And the road up to Mt. Wilson is closed, though they are letting workers go around the gate to get up to the towers on Mt. Wilson:






So I decided to head up the road on my bike, and see how the top of Valley Forge looked. The road had been plowed, but was still pretty icy in patches.






So I got to the top and the views of Mt. Waterman, as always, were incredible.





But the trailhead at Valley Forge was buried... there was no trail visible, except for the sign:






So I tried to ride down it anyway, just for kicks... it goes down pretty quickly to a north-facing slope that I figured would have dried out... but it was just too deep to ride, and I didn't feel like postholing it.






I had to hike back out... I was just spinning my back tire in the snow trying to climb, then headed back down to Redbox on the road.

Our backup plan for trailwork was to ride down the Red Box Fire road (the bottom of which is on a north-facing slope) and hike up from the bottom to do the trailwork. We had already worked on the top last time. So I went to check that out, The fire road had been plowed.





What I didn't realize was that it had only been plowed down to Camp H. Where the fire road continues down to Valley Forge campground hadn't been touched. In fact, the fire road had washed a 2' deep rut down to the lower gate, which was open, and from there the water had run off the side.






Beyond that the road was untouched snow...





I only made it down a few hundred yards before it got too deep and slippery to continue. I figured it would be too difficult to hike in for trail work, and impossible to ride in with trailers. I couldn't even find the Gabrielino trail or the Valley Forge under the snow....

We've officially moved the trailwork to the Ken Burton trail instead.




It was just an excuse to get out and do a great ride in the snow... 30 minutes from my house in Los Angeles.

[VTVic]

Wow, great shots and thanks for the update. That looks like a sh!t load of snow...

[MTBMaven]

Nice job dude. I'm snowed in here in Toronto. Big Noreaster rolled in last night.

[kanga]

Originally Posted by MTBMaven

Nice job dude. I'm snowed in here in Toronto. Big Noreaster rolled in last night.

It's gonna hit us on Sunday.... get your riding in now (though I plan to go out and test some new rain gear I got).

[OMR]

Excellent RR... I sense there is deep adventure in your soul. Gene and I are holding you to Viper... probably after VQ/CC.

[dirtmistress]

Great shots Steve! When was the last time so much snow hit that area and stuck for so long? 2005?

[kanga]

Originally Posted by dirtmistress

Great shots Steve! When was the last time so much snow hit that area and stuck for so long? 2005?

Had to be the '05 - '06 winter. There wasn't anything like this last year.